This invention relates to a hybrid propellant/electrothermal gun in which, for increasing the acceleration of the projectile, electric energy is introduced into a plasma length portion (plasma path) of the weapon barrel.
Hybrid propellant/electrothermal guns are known. They are guns for firing conventional ammunition and, to increase the projectile acceleration, a plurality of electrode pairs are disposed along the weapon barrel. The electrodes of each pair are situated diametrically opposite relative to the barrel axis. As the projectile passes an electrode pair, a high-energy arc is generated perpendicularly to the direction of projectile advance (that is, perpendicularly to the barrel axis), heating the propellant gases.
It is a primary disadvantage of the above-outlined prior art construction that expensive electronic or mechanical control devices are needed to ignite the arcs. Further, the effective width of the arc that heats the gas is relatively narrow so that a plurality of electron pairs is required to obtain an appreciable increase of the projectile acceleration.
German Published Patent Application 41 32 657 A1 discloses an electrothermal firing device in which the breech-side end of a conventional gun is coupled with an insulated barrel portion. The plasma chamber proper is formed by a cartridge which is situated in the loading chamber and which is provided with a breech-side grounded electrode and a barrel-side, high-voltage electrode. For firing, ground potential is applied to the breech and a high potential is applied to the barrel portion which is insulated relative to the breech and which is connected with the barrel-side electrode. As a result, in the cartridge between the barrel portion and the breech an arc is generated which is oriented axially with respect to the weapon barrel. It is a primary disadvantage of this prior art arrangement that for the acceleration of large-caliber projectiles very high electric energy is needed and therefore bulky current sources are required.